See Yourself Out
by JennaTalbot
Summary: Nina discovers a secret about Kaz. Puns ensue.


Kaz groaned in frustration and let his head fall back against the wall. He had no idea what time it was, but the sky had grown dark hours ago, and he was left with the flickering of the gaslight flame on his desk. It cast dark shadows around his office and onto his papers, and Kaz could

feel his patience wearing thin.

He hadn't expected being Per Haskell's lieutenant to be a glamorous job, far from it, although he did enjoy the status it brought him. He would enjoy being a Barrel boss more, but he had to admit being a lieutenant gave him a certain freedom, and he enjoyed that immensely. What he did _not_ enjoy was the seemingly endless mountains of paperwork that came with it.

Haskell had to be one of the laziest Barrel bosses out there, and was perfectly content to sit in the warmth and comfort of his own home while Kaz ran all the day to day activities of the Dregs, from managing the Crow Club accounts, coordinating gang comings and goings, and resolving the occasional turf war.

In all honesty, Kaz preferred it like this. Haskell would only get in his way. But that didn't stop his stomach from dropping slightly every time he saw the stacks of papers on his desk grow higher and higher.

Usually, Kaz handled the numbers and the accounts and the papers the same way he did everything- ruthlessly and with a meticulous precision. He didn't trust anyone else to settle accounts or run the numbers like he did.

But some nights, like tonight, he was sorely tempted to just burn the entire office down and walk away.

There were more documents than usual, which meant that the Crow Club had been turning a good business lately. Kaz should be pleased. But in this instance, more money left him with more problems in the form of numbers to run and check and papers to fill out and file.

He held one of the documents to his face, squinting slightly at the tiny handwriting. He was going to have to talk with whoever filled this particular form out, their printing was atrocious.

It didn't help that he had a splitting headache, and the flickering of the lamp was straining his eyes, and the room in front of him looked like it was swimming-

Kaz scowled in defeat and wrenched open the bottom drawer of his desk. Enough of the night had been wasted already. He pulled out the past account books that he stored there, practically ancient things that no one would ever have reason to see. He carefully balanced them on top of the already precarious piles on his desktop. Once the drawer was cleared out, he felt along the back edge and carefully lifted out the false bottom.

From inside the small compartment lined with black felt, he pulled out a pair of glasses. They were incredibly well crafted, Fabrikator made. Kaz had spared no expense in purchasing them, and had the proceeded to pay the Fabrikator in question for his silence. He held the pair of black, round frames in between his gloved fingers, examining them. The black metal arms were accented with silver that glinted in the lamplight.

Carefully, Kaz unfolded the arms, and put them on his face. He hated having to wear glasses, but he had to admit they made things a lot easier. Just moments after putting them on, he could already feel his headache starting to recede, and he sighed.

He replaced the false bottom and the account books back into their drawer and settled in for a long night, the flickering of the gas lamp reflecting off of his lenses.

"Uh… Kaz? Kaaaaaz?" A voice called from the doorway.

Kaz sat up with a start and looked around wildly. He was still at his desk, and the early morning sun was shining through the window.

"Hey, we thought there was supposed to be a meeting this morning and well, I drew the short straw to come make sure you weren't dead and I just-" Nina came to a stop in the doorway.

"As you can see, I am very much still alive. Now get out of my office," Kaz scowled, embarrassed to be caught sleeping at his desk and determined not to show it. He understood the value of getting up and starting the day early, and tried to plan meetings and other important matters early in the day to force the other Dregs to do the same.

Nina just lifted an eyebrow, and Kaz could see the amusement in her eyes. Frustrated, he ran a hand over his hair, and his gloved fingers made contact with his-

 _Oh no._

He had fallen asleep at his desk, which meant he had fallen asleep while working. Which meant that he hadn't taken his glasses off. Which meant he was still wearing them now.

His eyes widened, and Nina snickered as the lenses made them look even wider.

"What," she asked with another laugh, "Are those?"

Kaz straightened up and mustered every shred of cold dignity he could find. "These will be the last thing you ever see if anyone else hears about this."

Nina shrank back slightly, unprepared for the full force of Kaz's glare. But the effect was somewhat reduced behind the thick lenses, and the amusement returned to her eyes quickly.

"Whatever you say Brekker," she said with a smirk and left, closing the office door behind her.

Kaz slumped down in his chair and pulled his glasses off of his face, flinging them down onto his desk. After a beat he picked them up and checked them for damage, carefully folding them and placing them back into the desk drawer under the false bottom.

He rubbed his temples before standing up and putting on his coat, preparing to go down and lead a meeting with the rest of the Dregs.

Kaz stood at the front of the room, internally groaning. She had yet to say anything, but Nina had been giving him pointed looks for the entire meeting, to the point where he was sure other people had started to notice. He was steadfastly ignoring her, but that was getting more difficult to do each time she exaggerated her blinks or wiggled her eyebrows at him.

He continued to outline his plan, detailing how they should be taking more advantage of the people coming into Fifth Harbour.

He hesitated. "Any questions," he finally grit out, expecting the worst.

"I've got one," Nina spoke up, a wicked gleam in her eyes.

Kaz levelled his gaze on her. "Yes Nina?"

"I guess _eye_ just don't _see_ how changing our schedule down at the harbors will be beneficial to us. Wouldn't it be better to set our _sights_ on the pigeons later? They spend enough time _oggling_ the shops there that they make easy targets, and we wouldn't want to _miss_ them," she said with a grin.

Kaz took a deep breath. "Nina, are you questioning me?"

Her grin faltered a bit. Inej shifted in her seat and Jesper was looking at Nina in awe. They may not have understood the details of what was going on, but nobody but Inej was able to disagree with Kaz in a meeting and get away with it.

"Because _eye_ believe that you are making a _spectacle_ of yourself right now, Nina," he continued, his face expressionless.

Nina just gaped at him. Whatever she had been expecting, Kaz shooting back puns was not it.

"Any other questions? No? Then this meeting is dismissed," Kaz said. "Oh and Nina?" He paused. "I've got my _eye_ on you."

He turned to leave, a triumphant smile spreading across his face when he saw the utter disbelief on Nina's face.

* * *

 **AN:** **I honestly have no words, I hope you enjoy this? Shout out to Rowan for the idea of Nina finding out that Kaz wears glasses**


End file.
